Scientists at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute published a peer review study that found higher incidents of mercury in people who regularly consume locally caught seafood from the Indian River Lagoon.

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According to the study, people who eat fish or shellfish from the lagoon, which stretches from Volusia County to the Jupiter Inlet, more than three times a week, are about four times as likely to have unsafe levels of mercury in their bodies.

"We’re not trying to create panic," said Adam Schaefer, one of the study's lead authors. "It’s really about being an educated consumer about the particular type of fish species you’re consuming and how often you are consuming it."

Schaefer said the Environmental Protection Agency sets the safe levels of mercury consumption for humans at one part per million. He said people surveyed who said they ate locally caught seafood three to seven times a week were four times more likely to have mercury above that threshold.

Schaefer said they decided to survey residents after noticing Atlantic bottlenose dolphins in the lagoon had high levels of mercury.

They took DNA hair samples from people at bait stores, marinas and found fishing along the lagoon, and then surveyed them on their seafood eating habits.

Schaefer said the high levels of mercury are not connected to polluted run-off from Lake Okeechobee, but from a variety of other environmental factors.